David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian and economist, born and educated in Edinburgh. He is credited with the development of scepticism and empiricism. Hume rejected the idea of causality, claiming that one event would not necessarily lead to another; events were linked only by the imagination of the observer rather than by reason. In effect, Hume was rejecting scientific laws which state that one action necessarily produces another in a predictable manner. Print by Simon Charles Miger after Charles-Nicolas Cochin II in 1764.